


"I like your laugh"

by virvatulilla



Series: 100 ways to say I love you - my OCs [5]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, M/M, Nonbinary Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 22:20:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11541588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virvatulilla/pseuds/virvatulilla
Summary: 100 ways to say I love you challenge 38. Vicos/Kúura





	"I like your laugh"

It was a peaceful evening. Kúura, who had been invited over to the palace for dinner had been searching for Vicos all afternoon. He had tried to ask the people that worked there, but none of them either knew or wanted to tell him.

Kúura sat down on a bench in a large inner ward. On the scale of the palace it was small, but to Kúura it felt enormous. There were trees, fountains, and paved paths between patches of grass and flowers. It was quiet, Kúura could only hear the occasional light footsteps in nearby corridors.

There was no sign of Vicos when a bell rang for dinner the last time. Kúura waited in the anterior room until he couldn’t keep the ruler and his wife waiting any longer.

“Kúura! How lovely of you to come dine with us,” Geras’s wife Ysa said as soon as Kúura stepped into the room. She came to greet him by his hands. “Has Vicos contacted you?” she asked.

“No, why?” Kúura asked. “Did he run away?”

Geras, who was sitting at the head of the table, snorted loudly. “I doubt it,” he said. “When Vicos disappears for a day without telling anyone, it’s just something he doesn’t want to talk about. He would  _ brag _ about running away, he would rub it in my face and tell me several times how everything is my fault.”

Ysa scowled at Geras, who sighed. “You are right. Where are all of my other siblings or are they also missing?”

After Geras had asked the question, one of the doors opened, and the rest of the royal family were led in – except for Vicos, who was still missing. They all gave Kúura a warm welcome before sitting around the table, and didn’t immediately start talking about Vicos.

Kúura had to admit that food in Aaniedelain tasted the better than food in other countries in Anendelon he had visited. It might have been because the royal family had only the best quality of food, but even the spices were pleasant to his mouth.

“Say, Kúura,” said Serrence, who was sitting right next to him in the table, “you have experienced all of Aaniedelain’s seasons, haven’t you? Is winter here much different than in Iniera?”

The question almost made Kúura snort water out of his nose, and he had to take a while to breathe before answering. “I was surprised you call winter here a winter,” he grinned. “Weather in your deepest winter days could be compared to a warm spring day in Iniera.”

“Are you exaggerating or is it really that cold in there?” asked Breia, who was sitting across the table from Kúura. “How can you live in a place that’s so cold you can’t even grow food?”

Kúura sat back, trying to remember what he had been taught about Iniera’s economy. “It’s true we can’t grow most of the foodstuff you can grow here in the warmer countries,” he told, “but there are some vegetables that grow in those parts of Iniera where the snow isn’t a year-round thing. We buy a lot of things from other countries, and in return we give them spells and body parts from the animals we hunt for food.”

“That sounds unpleasant,” Oferfia interrupted. “Body parts like animal hearts and lungs, or do you mean something else?”

“We do export dried and salted meat,” Kúura said, “meat doesn’t stay fresh long enough to get it overseas. Mostly I was thinking of animal bones, teeth, tusks and even pelts sometimes.”

“I don’t think that’s any less unpleasant,” Oferfia said. “But I’m interested in how you survive your winters then? The sun warms you up in the day but–”

“There is no sun in winter,” Kúura interrupted.

“What?” Oferfia, Breia and Kandenere said all at once.

“The sun doesn’t rise above the horizon in the winter,” Kúura corrected himself. “In the deepest parts of winter every day for more than a week the sun doesn’t rise at all.”

“It’s like that in Noviere too,” Serrence added. “Hasn’t Draien talked to you about his country?”

“No,” Oferfia said, sounding irritated. “Unlike Kúura, Draien doesn’t talk to us because we’re younger than him. He’s like Geras in that sense.”

“Excuse me?” said Geras, who had been immersed in his own conversation with Ysa. Oferfia stick her tongue out, and at very quickly a heated argument had broken out between them. Kúura leaned towards Serrence, who had leaned her head against one hand. “If my sisters were here we’d have a fistfight,” he said.

Serrence sighed. “No wonder you get along with Vicos so well,” she said. “You know if he was here he’d be trying to pick a fight with Geras.”

Geras and Oferfia stopped fighting when the dessert was brought in. The conversation turned towards other topics, and Kúura was feeling quite cozy having Vicos’s siblings around him. Actually, Kúura noticed it felt slightly better than he remembered what it had felt like being home.

After the dinner Serrence offered to escort Kúura to the rooms he would be staying during his visit. “I don’t know if this is inappropriate,” Kúura said to Serrence, “but could you show me Vicos’s rooms? I just–”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” Serrence smiled. “It’s this way.”

The door to Vicos’s room was ajar, but Serrence knocked on it either way. When they heard a low groan from the room, Serrence nudged Kúura to go inside. He sighed lightly, and stepped into the dark room, closing the door behind him.

“Vicos?” Kúura called softly. It was so dark in the room that he didn’t dare to walk forward in fear of stepping on something and breaking it. “Vicos, are you here?”

Another low groan came from the direction where Kúura imagined the bed would be. “I’m hiding,” Kúura heard Vicos mutter. “Don’t tell Geras I’m… like this.”

Kúura sighed, grabbing his athi, concentrating it on his palm. A white-yellow ball of light formed on his palm, illuminating the part of the room where he stood. It gave him enough light to move across the room to Vicos while avoiding stepping on anything.

Vicos was lying on the floor beside his bed. Kúura lit the lamp on the bedside table and then sat on the floor next to Vicos. “Have you been here all day?” he asked gently.

Vicos shook his head. “I knew that you were coming to dinner but I didn’t want to see my family. I’m sorry that I didn’t–”

“You don’t have to be,” Kúura said. “You’re allowed to feel bad from time to time.”

Vicos sighed, turning on his side so he could look at Kúura. There was blood on his face, and part of his lower lip was swollen. Kúura brought a hesitant hand to Vicos’s cheek and stroked it very gently. “Did you get into a fight?”

Vicos sat up, taking Kúura’s hand into his. “I felt like fighting but I couldn’t find anyone who was willing to fight me, so I asked a friend to punch me in the face.”

Kúura had to bit his lip so he wouldn’t laugh. “You could always have asked me to fight you,” he said. “Wherever you want.”

Vicos raised his eyebrows, a flirtatious smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Well then,” Vicos said, putting a hand on Kúura’s neck. “You wanna fight me in bed?”

Kúura burst into laughter. “That’s not what I meant, but sure,” he laughed. “You mean right now?”

Vicos smirked, suddenly whacking Kúura in the face with a pillow. “Fight me,” he said, his smile splitting his face.

Kúura’s laughter just got louder, and he struggled to grab a pillow from Vicos’s bed while getting mercilessly beaten by the pillow in Vicos’s hands. “Why aren’t you fighting back?” Vicos laughed. “You’re giving me an easy–”

Vicos’s speech got interrupted when Kúura launched himself at his torso. He grabbed Vicos by his waist, lifting him in the air and throwing him on the bed. “How do you like that?” Kúura asked, standing beside the bed, grinning so wide it hurt his cheeks.

“You’re amazing, that was my first thought,” Vicos said, rising to support himself with his elbows. “I like your laugh. Your physical abilities are astonishing, and you’re stunningly beautiful as well. How do you do it?”

Kúura sat down on the bed next to Vicos. “I’m glad that I made you laugh as well,” he said, touching his chest and bowing his head to Vicos a little. “You say I’m beautiful? Just wait until I take my shirt off and then let’s see what you’ll think of me.”

Vicos reached to tug at the hem of Kúura’s shirt. “I would like that very much,” he said. “To be honest, I’m touched that you agreed to be my boyfriend – didn’t you? Or did I misinterpret something? It happened so quickly.”

Kúura moved to sit on Vicos’s hips. “We agreed on being boyfriends,” he said, “but I thought… I could also be your girlfriend– at the same time, if you know what I mean.”

“That’s quite alright by me, we even have a word for that,” Vicos smiled. “ _ Neisrena _ . Would you want to be my  _ neisrena _ ?”

“I’d like that,” Kúura said. “I’d like that very much.”


End file.
